Top Secret Shopping

Secret Shopper Task: visit a library where I was not known, and act as if I’m patron looking for suggestions for a good book. 

Purpose: Evaluate reader's advisory experience.

Experience: I chose a library that I had only visited once before - which happened to be last week when I popped in to get a book that my library did not have at the time. I was returning this book on the day I visited for the second time, and since I wasn’t crazy about it, I used it to segue into the conversation with the librarian. I told the librarian that I was having a hard time finding a good book, and that the book that I was returning had been recommended to me by a friend and it wasn't for me. He asked me to name a book that I had read and enjoyed. I told him, and using his computer, he found several read-alikes for me, most of which I had already read, but a few I had not. He walked me back to the shelf to find the first book, then asked if I'd like a few more. I told him maybe just one more. He found another read-alike for me and I told him I could find it on my own. 

Evaluation: In the full paper, I mentioned that in “At Leisure: Rethinking the Readers’-Advisory Interview”, Joyce Saricks states that only two questions need to be asked in a reader’s advisory conversation: “’Tell me about a book you’ve read and enjoyed’ and ‘Are you in the mood for that or something different?’” (p. 24). The librarian in my experience did ask a variation of the first question and since I told him that I was looking for something similar, he did not need to ask the second question.  I left with two books that were already on my "to-read" list, so I felt that this experience was a good one! 

Suggestion: One thing I might have done differently if I had been the librarian in this situation would have been to share my screen with the patron. Whether the librarian was using NoveList or a built-in feature of their online catalog, it would have been a good teaching moment to show the patron how to use the tool so they could search for books on their own. When I show patrons how to use NoveList, they are usually amazed at the ease of use, and excited at the prospect of using this tool to find new books to read.
(To view full paper, click here.)

References

Saricks, J. (2007). At Leisure: Rethinking the Readers'-Advisory Interview. The Booklist,105(15), 24

Can You Help Me Find....

This week's post deals with different situations and requests in helping readers find books. The scenarios and answers are as follows:

Q1. I am looking for a book by Laurell K. Hamilton. I just read the third book in the Anita Blake series and I can’t figure out which one comes next!

A2. The fourth book in the Anita Blake series is “The Lunatic Café.” There are a total of 25 books in this series, with the 26th, titled “Serpentine” coming out in August of this year. I would check the catalog to see if we have it, and I would print the list for the patron to take with them. I would tell them that I found the info on www.fantasticfiction.com. It’s a very user-friendly website for finding series’ in order.
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Q2. What have I read recently? Well, I just finished this great book by Barbara Kingsolver, Prodigal Summer. I really liked the way it was written, you know, the way she used language. I wouldn't mind something a bit faster paced though.

First of all, I’d have additional questions to ask this reader. Do they generally like ecofiction? Do they like stories with female protagonists? Is contemporary fiction something they prefer, or would they mind a story set in the past? Or future? Would they mind read a young adult book? But since I didn’t know any of that...my suggestion would be: “Nineveh” by Henrietta Rose-Innes (see full description below.) Like “Prodigal Summer,” this book has a female protagonist interested in ecology/nature, the writing is descriptive, and the tone is thought-provoking. “Nineveh” is fast-paced, which is what the reader says he/she prefers. According to Saricks (2009), faster-pacing often points to thrillers or suspense novels, which may be the genres this reader prefers, but just doesn’t know it yet!

Description:Katya Grubbs is Cape Town’s only ethical pest removal specialist. When she is hired to remove the exotic beetles that have overrun Nineveh, a new luxury housing development on the coast, Katya finds that bugs aren’t the only unwelcome creatures hiding in the new (but inhabited) apartments.
Book Appeal Terms:
Genre:Allegories; Psychological fiction
Character:Authentic; Complex; Strong female
Storyline:Character-driven
Pace:Fast-paced
Tone:Offbeat; Thought-provoking
Writing Style:Descriptive; Stylistically complex; Witty

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Q3. I like reading books set in different countries. I just read one set in China, could you help me find one set in Japan? No, not modern – historical. I like it when the author describes it so much it feels like I was there!

A3. In NoveList, I used the following search terms:

Subject: Japan

Genre: Historical Fiction

Appeal Term (Writing Style): Descriptive

Appeal Term (Tone): Strong sense of place

After reviewing the results, I would recommend “The Teahouse Fire” by Ellis Avery (see full description below). It is set in 19th century Japan, the writing style is descriptive, and it has a strong sense of place, even being described as “lush in details and epic in scope.”

Description:The fates of two women--one American, one Japanese--become entwined in this sweeping novel of 19th century Japan on the cusp of radical change and westernization. The Japanese tea ceremony, steeped in ritual, is at the heart of this story of an American girl, adopted by Kyoto's most important tea master and raised as attendant and surrogate younger sister to his privileged daughter Yukako. Pasts shrouded in secrets and mysterious traditions rocked by modernization make The teahouse fire a compelling and provocative story, lush in details and epic in scope.

Book Appeal Terms:
Genre:Coming-of-age stories; Historical fiction
Storyline:Sweeping
Pace:Leisurely paced
Tone:Bittersweet; Moving; Nostalgic; Reflective; Strong sense of place
Writing Style: Descriptive; Engaging; Lyrical; Richly detailed

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Q4. I read this great mystery by Elizabeth George called Well-Schooled in Murder and I loved it. Then my dentist said that if I liked mysteries I would probably like John Sandford, but boy was he creepy I couldn't finish it! Do you have any suggestions?

A4. According to NoveList, Well-Schooled in Murder is third in the Thomas Lynley series, so I would ask the patron if he/she had read the other books in the series, and if not, I would direct him/her to those. A further search using the “read-alike” feature in NoveList indicates that Maj Sjowall’s Martin Beck mystery series is very similar to the Thomas Lynley series. They both share genres “mystery” and “police procedurals” and they share the following appeal terms: likeable characters, character-driven and intricately plotted style, leisurely-paced, strong sense of place, suspenseful and violent tone. The reader may not have liked the Sanford novel because his novels are generally thrillers, are more fast-paced and have flawed characters.
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Q5. My husband has really gotten into zombies lately. He’s already read The Walking Dead and World War Z, is there anything else you can recommend?

A5. Based on searching NoveList for

Genre: Graphic Novels

Subject: Zombies

Appeal Factors: Gruesome, Compelling, 

I would recommend the following

• The I am Hero series by Kengo Hanazawa and
• The Rage series by Pierre Boisserie

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Q6. I love books that get turned into movies, especially literary ones. Can you recommend some? Nothing too old, maybe just those from the last 5 years or so.

A6. Based on personal experience, I would recommend, “A Man Called Ove” by Fredrik Backman (as long as the patron is okay with subtitles.)

While I am a big-time reader, I’m not a huge moviegoer, so I used the website located on Mary Chelton’s “Readers’ Advisory Tools for Adult Readers” in the “Books on Film” section: www.mcpl.lib.mo.us/readers/movies. This site allows you to sort movies-based-on-books by year. I was able to recognize several literary titles from 2013-2017. I also looked a few less- familiar titles up on NoveList to see what genre they were. It’s worth noting that as the years have progressed, there were less movies based on literary fiction and more movies based on thriller and mysteries (and more violence.)

• Brooklyn (2015)
• Room (2015)
• The 100 Foot Journey (2014)
• The Sound and the Fury (2014)
• Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk (2016)
• The History of Love (2016)
• Submergence (2016)
• A Century of November (2017)
• Call me By Your Name (2017)

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Q7. I love thrillers but I hate foul language and sex scenes. I want something clean and fast paced.

A7.I can name thriller authors all day long, but as I am not a huge reader of the genre, when it comes to the detailed content of their work, I have to refer to NoveList. I performed an advanced search with the following parameters:

Genre: Thriller

Not: Profanity

Not: Steamy

Not: Explicit

And: Fast-Paced

Included among the results were James Patterson books (The Alex Cross series), Dan Brown’s Robert Langdon series, some Harlan Coban titles (Don’t Let Go), and some titles by Lisa Scottoline (One Perfect Lie.) Further discussion would need to be had with the patron to learn if he/she prefers series or stand-alones before actually recommending a specific title. 

It should be noted that in this situation, the librarian is putting a lot of faith in NoveList. If the reader comes back with a book and says, "I asked for a good clean book and this is NOT that," they aren't going to care about NoveList appeal factors - they only know what you told them!  

How I find books to read for me:

I don’t have just one way to find books – I have several

• Goodreads: I know which of my Goodreads “friends” have the same taste as I, so when I see that they’ve highly rated a book, I know there is a good chance that I will like it, too.
• Occasionally, if I REALLY love a book, I will use NoveList to find read-alikes and have actually had a fair amount of success in finding new books and authors that I enjoy.
• When I “rove” the library, I make sure to make a pass by the “New” shelves. Sometimes this results in taking more books home than I can read, but I think that’s a requirement written in a librarian’s job description.
• Trade journals are great for collection development, but for personal reading I find them overwhelming, sometimes.  

What You'll Catch Me Reading (My Reading Profile)

I mostly read historical fiction and literary fiction, but occasionally I’ll branch out to some humorous non-fiction or historical non-fiction. I’ve even been known to dabble in science fiction, but it’s definitely not a go-to. I used to love horror as a young adult, but can’t get into it much anymore. I can’t say that I’m a fan of romance, suspense, mysteries, or westerns. I may try to give a few of those a whirl this semester so I can be a be a more well-read readers’ advisor!

A few favorite books that come to mind are:

·      Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

·      A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

·      Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

·      The Good Luck of Right Now by Matthew Quick

·      A Room with a View by E.M. Forster

·      A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

·      The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

·      Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

·      Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt

·      Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White

·      Just about any cookbook ever written

After reading “The Appeal of Books,” I used NoveList to review the appeal terms of some of my favorite books and found that I like:

·      Characters who are awkward, authentic, complex, quirky

·      Storylines that are character-driven

·      Tones that are amusing, moving, thought-provoking

·      Writing styles that are engaging, thoughtful, witty, lyrical, stylistically complex

At any given moment, I will have up to 5 books on my “currently reading” list because if I get bored or overly emotional with one, I like to rotate to the next and then circle back when I can handle it. (lol) I do love the feel and smell of a real book, but I’m not a bibliosnob; I love books in any format. I love my Kindle because I can read in the dark and I love audiobooks because I have a 30-minute commute. Also, one of my favorite things to do is cook and listen to stories.

Here's my Goodreads profile. I'd love to connect with classmates on Goodreads.  I always like to see what others are reading!